Curt Kiser, the agency's general counsel and a former senator from Pinellas County, will serve as the executive director until the commission finds a new director. Commissioner Julie Brown will lead a nominating committee for a permanent replacement.

PSC Chairman Art Graham, who earlier this month asked for Devlin's resignation, offered no explanation for why he sought Devlin's departure after 35 years at the utility regulatory board.

"I had a private conversation with the executive director, and if he wanted to go public with it we would have,'' Graham told reporters during a break in the daylong PSC meeting. "I think with his wishes we'll just keep it private. He tendered his resignation, and I think that's enough said."

Devlin did not attend the meeting and did not respond to requests for comment.

Graham is among four new commissioners named to the PSC after legislators last year purged the board of four consumer-friendly appointees named by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Devlin was appointed by the Crist-appointed commissioners in January 2010.

During his short 16-month tenure, he made the unusual request of asking utility companies to report how many PSC employees they had hired and how much they were paying them. He was also at the agency, as head of the Division of Economic Regulation, when Florida Power & Light requested, but did not get a $1 billion rate increase.

FPL is expected to request another rate increase in January.

Graham also announced Tuesday that because of budget cuts imposed by the Legislature, 27 people will be laid off by the end of June, including six in the public information office.

President Donald Trump and top Republicans will promise a package of sweeping tax cuts for companies and individuals, the Washington Post reports, but the GOP leaders will stop short of labeling many of the tax breaks they hope to strip away, putting off controversial decisions that threaten to sink the party's tax …

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The chief executive of Equifax, the troubled credit reporting agency that suffered a massive data breach affecting as many as 143 million people, will retire, effective Tuesday, according to a statement by the company.

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